Mountain View Voice

LASD, Bullis reach tentative agreement

by Nick Veronin

The battle over Bullis Charter School appears to be over — at least tentatively. After ducking out of the public eye for a series of private mediation sessions, officials from the Los Altos School District and the local charter school reached a compromise that will give Bullis an existing campus in the district, according to a joint press release from the two educational organizations.

Bullis and LASD have agreed to jointly back a bond measure proposed for the November ballot, the statement said. Bullis will get a campus in the 2013-14 school year if the bond passes and in the 2014-15 school year if the bond fails.

According to the release, Bullis will be provided one of four school sites — Almond, Gardner Bullis, Santa Rita or Covington. If the measure is approved, the district will build a new campus for the students that are displaced when Bullis gets its campus. While the new school is being built, displaced students will be spread throughout the district's schools.

If the measure is not approved, Bullis would have to wait another year before getting one of the district's campuses. In this scenario, "LASD would likely consolidate its students in existing facilities while seeking passage of a new bond measure in 2014," the statement said. It is not clear whether Bullis would be obligated to support that second bond measure.

Bullis has agreed to stay on its current site at Egan Junior High School until one of the two scenarios unfolds.

Many of the details are yet to be worked out, but both organizations exchanged amicable words in the joint press release, a change of pace from the heated rhetoric that's marked the contentious legal wrangling over campus facilities for the charter school.

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